13 Aspects of a Priest, a Particular Kind of Person who Serves God Continually

It is so wonderful to realize that all the genuine Christians, the believers in Christ, are priests; they are called by God and saved by Him that they may be priests to God, a royal priesthood, the church. A priest is one who receives God and is filled, saturated, and permeated with God until God flows out of him so that he may be a living expression of God.

A priest doesn’t primarily DO things for God but rather first spends time with God to be infused with God, be filled with God, and be saturated with God so that God in him and through him would do things and minister to others.

The first priest in the Bible wasn’t Aaron or even Melchizedek, but Abel and even Adam were priests in principle, since they made offering to God and spent time in God’s presence to be filled with God (Gen. 4:4). Later Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and many others built altars to God, offered sacrifices to Him, walked in God’s presence, were called by God, and lived as a priest. These didn’t have the label of “priest” neither were they called priests, but they acted as priests.

God’s intention in creating man is that man would be an open vessel for God to fill, saturate, and permeate, so that man would become God’s corporate expression on earth; the priesthood accomplishes God’s intention, and the church today is the priesthood. Today we all as believers in Christ are priests, those who serve God continually in spirit.

Based on the divine revelation in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, the priests are a particular kind of person – and this is not in a “strange” or “crazy” way but in a good way, according to God’s purpose in creating man. There are at least thirteen aspects of a priest that are revealed in the Bible and are applied to our Christian life today.

Thirteen Aspects of a Priest, a Particular Kind of Person who Serves God Continually

I have to admit, these aspects were not “discovered by me” in the Word of God, but they were unveiled to us throughout the ages and especially through the ministry of the age, the ministry of brothers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.

As believers in Christ we are all beneficiaries of the Lord’s up-to-date speaking and revelation, and we can cooperate with Him to dig into the riches in the Word of God to not only know these things but also enter into the experience of all the aspects of a priest.

As one who serves God continually, a priest is a particular kind of person in at least thirteen aspects.

1. A priest is a person who serves God by enjoying God in Christ (see Rom. 1:9; Gal. 5:22). Paul was a priest, one who served God in his spirit in the gospel of His Son; the preaching of the gospel was a service in the way of worship. To worship God is to enjoy God, partake of God, eat God, and drink God. God has everything and He can do everything: He doesn’t need us to do anything for Him; all He wants is that we serve Him by enjoying Him in Christ through the exercise of our human spirit.

2. A priest is a person who serves God through Christ as the reality of the offerings (Lev. 1-7; 1 Pet. 2:5). In the Old Testament, a priest was one who served God through the offerings, but in the New Testament age, we now serve God through Christ, who Himself came as the fulfillment and replacement of all the offerings. Christ is our burnt offering, our peace offering, our meal offering, our sin offering, and our trespass offering, and He is the wave offering, the heave-offering, and the drink offering which we offer to God by the exercise of our spirit.

3. A priest of God is one who serves God with Christ, through Christ, and by Christ (see Phil. 1:8; Col. 1:27-28; 2:9-10). The hands of the priests were always filled with the offerings; our hands as priests of God should be filled with Christ as the reality of all the offerings, and we should “handle Christ” by enjoying Him, being in Him, and doing everything through Him, in Him, and by Him. Our real service to God is to enjoy Christ, experience Him in His inward parts, make known His riches as the gospel, and be made full in Him by God through experiencing Him.

4. A priest is a person who enjoys Christ (Phil. 3:1; Eph. 3:8). Whether in good or bad situations, whether in pleasant things or in sufferings, a priest is one who enjoys Christ. If a priest doesn’t enjoy Christ, he has nothing to offer. Christians today may sweat a lot in doing many things for God, they may be zealous for God, but if they don’t enjoy Christ, they have nothing to offer to God. God is hungry for the Christ enjoyed by us, experienced by us, and offered by us. As priests to God, let us enjoy Christ every day!

5. A priest is a person who lives by Christ: all his eating, clothing, and dwelling are Christ Himself (see John 6:57; Gal. 3:27; John 15:4). The food of the priests was from the sacrifices; God ordained that they eat some of the meat and bread and drink offered to God. Our food today as priests to God is Christ: we eat of Him as the bread of life, drink of Him as the living water, and feast on Him as everything to us.

The clothing of the priests is Christ: He is our real covering, He is our particular garments, He’s the breastplate and the crown on our head; as we enjoy Christ and experience Him in our living, we richly express Him daily. The dwelling place of the priests was the tabernacle, which is Christ Himself; as priests to God we need to abide in Christ, our real home.

1. A priest is one who contacts God in the mingling with God (1 Cor. 6:17). The priests contacted God not outside the tabernacle but in the Holy of Holies, that is, in the mingling of God with man. As they passed through the Holy Place and into the Holy of Holies, the priests contacted God in the mingling with God. This is very deep.

We today as priests contact God not merely objectively but subjectively: we contact God in God, in the mingling with God. As we contact God, we’re mingled with God, and in this mingling of God and man we contact God. How do we contact God today? In our mingled spirit! We are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and we contact God the Spirit in our spirit (John 4:24; 1 Cor. 6:17).

1. A priest is one who is absolutely and thoroughly mingled with God (John 14:20). The priest was serving God in the tabernacle, which is a place filled with smoke: in the outer court there’s the smoke from the sacrifices on the altar of burnt offering, in the Holy Place there’s the smoke of the seven lamps, and in the Holy of Holies there’s the incense burning. This smoke is a type of Christ, who is the only One pleasing to the Father, ascending to Him as a sweet-smelling savor through our offering of Christ.

Today we as priests are thoroughly mingled with God by being “smoked with God”; we’re infused with His shekinah glory as we spend time with Him, and we bear the incense of Christ to all the people. When others meet us, we have the flavor of God, we have a heavenly atmosphere, and we shine out the God we’re mingled with.

1. A priest is one who becomes a part of God’s dwelling, God’s house (1 Pet. 2:5). The priests were not just serving in God’s house: they were part of God’s house, and the priesthood is actually God’s dwelling place on earth. As priests to God today, we are being built up as a holy priesthood into a spiritual house. The holy priesthood is the spiritual house; the body of priests who serve God in God with Christ as their everything is actually the house of God. Hallelujah, by serving God as priests we’re becoming a part of God’s house!

10. A priest is a person who ministers Christ to others (Rom. 15:16; 2 Cor. 4:5). The priests don’t “teach the people” about God – they minister Christ to man. Because we as priests are filled with Christ, covered with Christ, one with Christ, and mingled with Christ, whatever we say and pass on is Christ Himself. Through our spending time with the Lord and enjoying Him day by day, we are filled with Christ and we minister Christ to others; we don’t minister knowledge, forms, or anything else but the Christ with whom we have been saturated and permeated.

1. A priest is one who brings man into fellowship with God and brings God into fellowship with man (1 John 1:3). On the one hand, the priest brought man before God, and on the other hand, he brought God to man. Through fellowshipping with God we bring man to God: we’re being infused with God and we also bring man to God, praying for others, and seeking the Lord to get a fresh word from Him for others. When we contact others, we bring God to man: we minister the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced into them. Whatever we hear from the Lord, we minister to others, and when we go to the Lord, we bring others to Him.

In order for the church as the dwelling place of God to be built up, we need the priesthood; without a strong and prevailing priesthood, there’s no building up of the church. But when all saints contact God, are filled with God, and function as priests, the church is built up to be God’s dwelling place on earth. God’s house, His dwelling place is in our spirit; therefore, for us as priests to build up the church we need to exercise our spirit!

1. A priest is one who is a laboring priest of the gospel of God (Rom. 15:16). We serve God by being in God’s presence and being filled with God, and we also serve God by ministering Him to man and presenting the saved sinners to God as offerings to God. As priests, we are energized priests of the gospel of God to bring many Gentiles – who were unclean and defiled – to God and cooperate with God for them to be sanctified in the Holy Spirit and become an acceptable offering to God.

Lord Jesus, may we realize that we’re a particular kind of person: we’re priests, those who serve God continually by first enjoying God in Christ and offering Christ to God as the reality of all the offerings! Lord, may our serving You be with Christ, through Christ, and by Christ. Make us those who enjoy Christ all the time no matter what circumstances may be. Lord, You are our food, our clothing, and our dwelling, and we contact God in the mingling with God. Mingle Yourself more with us, and make us part of Your dwelling place so that we may bear the testimony of God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol. 1, “The Priesthood,” chs. 7-8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 12 / msg 12, A Kingdom of Priests.
• Hymns to strengthen the burden in this article:
  # All the clothing of his service / Is the beauty of the Lord; / Glorious splendor do his garments, / Breast and shoulder-piece afford. / O how blessed is the priest’s life, / Christ to him is all in all: / All his clothing, food, and dwelling, / And his portion therewithal. (Hymns #911)
  # E’en as the priests the incense burned, / In prayer to Thee I persevere; / As incense Thou the Spirit art / Mixed with the prayer I offer here. (Hymns #813)
  # Now the building spiritual / And the priesthood all are one; / Now the building of the house / By the priestly work is done. (Hymns #849)